Tensions at the Fringes of the European Union – Regaining the EU’s Purpose

The TREUP project pursues interdisciplinary European studies from the enhanced perception of tensions at the fringes of the European Union, combining the empirical exploration of tensions with the EU’s purpose as a normative constitutional perspective. Its four research clusters focus on tensions between narrow economic perspectives on integration and the lives of Europe’s people in their diversity, between the EU’s external (trade) policy and its constitutional values, between different degrees of intensity of integration and different levels of governance, and between the two competing European human rights regimes.

By Dagmar Schiek,20th September 2018

This special issue focuses on challenges and opportunities for the European Union, also addressing topical issues such as the EU’s role in policing the rule of law (with special focus on Poland) and “Irish question” in Brexit. The general introduction and those two articles are open access. The issue overview can be found here

By admin,1st September 2018

Saturday 23 September 2017, 9:00 – 17:15 hrsQueen’s University Belfast, Main Site Tower

Our sincerest thanks to speakers and participants for making this a successful conference – a summary report is now available here and speakers’ presentations can be accessed here. NEW: some of the papers are published in a special issue of the NILQ – check our web page here: https://nilq.qub.ac.uk/index.php/nilq/issue/view/7

By admin,26th June 2018

On 21 June the Home office has issued a 60 page long “Statement of Intent” (SoI) on how EU citizens will be able to secure settled status in the UK after “Brexit”, with immense resonance in the press and blog sphere. Is a mere Statement of Intent worth the hubbub?

By admin,7th March 2018

Professor Schiek offers a first legal political assessment of the protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland in the draft withdrawal agreement from legal perspectives. She concludes that the EU Commission’s proposal on the one hand constitutes a major compromise, in that a sectoral approach to the EU Internal Market is allowed for Northern Ireland alone, in order to avoid the need of a physical infrastructure at the border on the island of Ireland. On the other hand, the draft falls short of securing the all-island economy in the service sector, and also has shortcomings in maintaining the hybridity of identities in Northern Ireland as aspired by the 1998 Agreement (also known as Good Friday or Belfast Agreement). TREUP Occasional Paper 3 (2018) An updated version taking into account the provisional agreements between the EU Commission’s and UK government’s negotiation parties on 19 March, is available here :The island of Ireland and the UK in Withdrawal Agreement Draft 19 March 2018 Schiek

By admin,5th February 2018

How will Human Rights be protected in Europe between the Council of Europe and the European Union? Debates on how the two competing courts contributed to Equality and Social Justice (panel one, key note: Evelyn Collins, NI Equality Commission) and to resolving tensions between human rights and criminal justice (panel 2, key note: Daniel Sarmiento, University Carlos III Madrid). For more information check the call for papers(closed), the conference report (HERE), the slides of Dagmar Schiek’s conference summary (HERE), and podcasts of speakers summarising their contributions (HERE). Abstracts and cv’s can be found in the conference folder (HERE). *This was a Bar Council’s recognised CPD event.

By admin,2nd February 2018

In a recent extensive working paper Billy Melo Araujo examines the role of devolved governments in negotiating the UK’s new relationship with the European Union, adding a post-scriptum on the negotiators’ joint report of December 2017 ( http://go.qub.ac.uk/Melo-Araujo-Post-Brex-FTA ). In a shorter blog for the UK in a Changing Europe, Dagmar Schiek discusses the options of avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland considering the positioning of the UK government in addition to the negotiators’ report (http://ukandeu.ac.uk/will-the-irish-question-be-solved/ ).

“Together with the UK, Irish and all EU governments, we will now need to develop creative solutions that work.”

If this is true, the much praised negotiation progress closing phase one Article 50 TEU negotiations may appear as “back to square one” for appreciating the unique situation of the island of Ireland. Even without legal … Continue reading

By admin,7th August 2017

Following the UK government’s release of its position paper on the position of Northern Ireland and Ireland after Brexit, Professor Dagmar Schiek shares her initial thoughts on the paper and highlights what is not being addressed. … Continue reading